1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to client-server technologies, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for enabling client systems to discover services accessible by remote procedure calls (RPC) on server systems.
2. Related Art
Remote procedure calls (RPCs) generally enable a client system to request services provided on server systems (“RPC server system”). In a common scenario, a RPC server system is implemented to execute a service upon receiving an RPC request, and a client system causes execution of the service by sending the RPC request. The results of execution of the service are then generally provided to the client system sending the RPC request.
In one prior embodiment, the RPC services are provided on pre_specified RPC server systems according to pre_specified RPC interfaces (e.g., TCP or UDP port number at which to send the request). Thus, any client system requiring execution of a service sends the corresponding RPC request to a RPC server system (on which the service is provided) according to the pre_specified interface.
The approach of above may have several limitations. For example, it may be desirable to provide the same service on different (or additional) RPC servers (e.g., to scale), and the clients systems may not be able to automatically (i.e., without additional configuration which specifically indicates the RPC servers on which each RPC service is accessible) discover the availability of the services on the different RPC servers.
Accordingly what is needed is a method and apparatus which enables client systems to discover services accessible by remote procedure calls (RPC) on server systems.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.